Getting Animated

Hey guys, this is Rob Paulsen and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. I've always been

kind of a pacifist. When I was a kid my father

told me never hit anyone in anger unless you're

absolutely sure you can get away with it. I don't

know what kind of soldier I'm gonna make but

I want you guys to know that if we ever get into

real heavy combat I'll be right behind you guys.

every step of the way. You are now on the inside

of what I like to call the circle of trust. We

are all connected in a great circle of life.

You know something Bert? What? I think you and

I are going in circles. It feels like we're going

in circles. Hi, this is Chuck. This is Greg.

And this is Dan and we are Talking in Circle

brought to you by the GeekCast Radio Network,

the podcast that keeps on keeping on. How's the

week been going for you guys? Eh, not too bad.

Not much going on here. I've been doing a little

eBay shopping, a little online shopping. When

I was younger, in my younger days, I used to

do a lot of collecting Marvel Legends and different

things like that. And every once in a while,

if I see a cool one, I'll pick it up. I just

recently bought a pretty cool Doctor Doom figure.

So by the time this comes out next week, hopefully

I will have met my Doom. You finally captured

Dr. Doom. Very nice, very nice. Greg, how are

things going with you? Oh, pretty good, pretty

good. Wasn't up too much. Went to Paris, took

a cab with my friend to the apartment building

and some guy came in with us and traveled over

and then these people broke into the house. It

was really weird. It was cool though. My dad

saved me, so... Weird. Yeah. They should really

make it into a movie, I think. Yeah, Greg, I

was very much taken by your story. I know it

is captivating. I will find you. Thanks, Chuck.

It's glad to know you got my back. I have a particular

set of skills. A particular set of skills meant

for finding. For those who are joining us for

the first time or those return visitors, like

I mentioned, we are talking with circles. We

start each podcast with a discussion of what

we've been up to recently, reading, watching,

listening to all that great stuff. And then in

our second segment, we, you know, see where the

mood strikes us. Last week, we talked about our

top five movies and TV shows. And to keep that

theme going today, we're going to be talking

about our top five favorite TV cartoons. So last

week, we didn't have much crossover, but I think

this week might be a little bit different. Knowing

our love for different cartoons. So it's gonna

be exciting to see what that is It's gonna be

cartoon on cartoon action. Nice. Nice. I know

a lot of people are into that especially in Japan

I definitely think we're gonna have a lot of

crossover on this one. Yeah, definitely. But

to start things off, in kind of the mood of cartoons

somewhat, I've been watching, or I should say

I was reading a comic recently, and I won't go

in great detail on this comic because there's

actually be an upcoming episode of Decast Radio's

The Pullback that I was on where I discussed

this, along with Planet Ho. I just read Captain

America Man Out of Time written by Daniel Wade,

and Greg, it was... Illustrated by one of your

favorite artists or is it Jorge or George Molina?

Okay. Yeah, I got his nice did a nice rogue drawing

for me that I have hanging out somewhere ready

to be framed Yeah, I do really dig that drawing

and I don't know if you guys have read this story

at all It was like a miniseries. Have you guys

read it at all? I haven't No, I've never checked

that out. It's pretty good. I would I would highly

highly recommend it It came out, I think, 2010

or 2011. Sorry, 2011. It's not in the line of

Redhead Baker's run, like his run on Captain

America. It's like a separate story per se. It's

like a retelling of his origin up to like Avengers

4. It kind of fills in the base in between Avengers

4. For those who don't know, Avengers 4 is when

Captain America was rediscovered and they found

him in the ice and brought him back into the

modern world. Well, it kind of goes into that

a little bit. And what I really like about it,

it really gets into the heart of what I love

about Captain America. He's used as this microcosm

of American progression since World War II. You

see, he is split with his feelings towards where

America has been and what he fought for back

then. When he's come into this world, he's experiencing

the 21st century or 20th century, I guess, since

this happened at Avengers 4 for the first time.

And... At first, he's kind of impressed with

what he sees, not necessarily on the technology

aspect, but more so on the cultural aspect and

how we've improved, especially with racial agents

and stuff like that. But then he also sees the

other side of it as well, and it's a great use

of the dichotomy of how we've advanced as a culture

since then, and I think that's a really great

use of Captain America because Captain America

is one of those characters that needs a good

writer, and he can easily be a boring, boring

scout that's very one -dimensional. but they

really fool him out and they also do some great

things with his uncertainty about being Captain

America. Like the separation between Captain

America and Steve Rogers and how he is not sure

if he's going to be or if he should be like the

symbol that everyone looks up to. It's a really

good read if you've never read a Captain America

story before, you're not really sure. This is

actually when I would say go to this one first

because you need to know nothing about Captain

America to really understand it. It's helpful

because it does get into a lot of classic Marvel

stories from during that time in the Avengers

You may not understand exactly everything that's

going on like Rick Jones randomly randomly shows

up and No different different person For as far

as I know it could be the same person since it's

Rick Jones and Rick James Yeah, they could be

related or you know, or at least be friends But

it's quite good, so I would highly, highly recommend

it. And the other thing I've been watching, recently

Netflix released the second season of House of

Cards. So that's inspired me to go back and finish

the first season of House of Cards. Because we

started, we watched the first few episodes and

then... one of those things, we never went back

to it. So we went back to it and finished the

first season and I really, really dig that show.

It's not something I would say maybe it's my

all time favorite shows like we did last week,

but it's really good. I love like the mood of

it. It's for those that don't know Kevin Spacey

plays this congressman and beginning of the series

starts where he thinks he's becoming the secretary

of state, but it doesn't work out. So the entire

season is like him plotting and planning like

his final move to gain more power within the

White House. And it's very dark and twisted and

Katie Mara, who was recently just cast as the

invisible woman, is in the show too. She plays

a reporter and it's showing the side of her relationship

with Kevin Spacey and how he tries to use the

media to send the message he wants to and play

games and it's really good. It does get very

dark at times. It's directed by David Lynch in

a bunch of episodes created by he's the guy who

did the social network and it kind of has a similar

feel. to that movie or to that show. Just finished

the second season. I'm really looking forward

to the first season. So it does make getting

Netflix worth it. And I think if this is kind

of the stuff that Netflix will be doing in like

the original programming that they're doing,

I think they're off to a good start. But I think

I've been talking for way too much already. So

Greg, how about yourself? What are you been up

to? Well, I read a graphic novel out of the assortment

of ones that I got on sale. I read another one.

This time it was, uh, what was that? Is this

from BAM again? Yes it is. I just read X -Men

First Class, the graphic novel. This is something

good to read if you're kind of like getting pounded

by continuity and stuff like that, just like

an overload of crossovers and trying to keep

up with continuity of things. It's about the

original X -Men, but it's set more of in a modern

time. It's not like the new x -men where they're

taken out of the past and put into the modern

time It's just kind of like a reboot if they

they started in more modern time. So there's

not really any continuity Continuity, I'm gonna

get this word, right? I'm gonna get correct one

of these times. We have today's word of the day

Continuity the continuity. Thank you. I'm gonna

mess it up in two seconds again But the art was

good. It just didn't really strike my sensibilities

at all. It was technically sound though. How

was the continuity? There was none. It was like

single standalone stories, which I thought was

nice and refreshing. Kind of there was some weird

parts in there where they had some Spider -Man

villains and it was kind of like they were trying

to do like a little origin story of the lizard,

which I've always thought of more as a Spider

-Man character, so for them to do an origin story

in an X -Men book I thought was kind of weird,

but interesting. They're just short little stories.

They're not too long or complicated, so I thought

that was good, and I thought that led to a little

bit of refreshing your palate with everything

that's going on now in Marvel with... How much

stuff you need to remember from issue to issue

and from title to title? So I think I read that

I read a lot of the first -class stuff But I

know there's been different versions of it. They're

very like toned down, right? It's really kind

of whimsical in that way, right where it's more

It's not a serious and it's not like no no and

it's more comedic in a sense Yeah, it is. It's

it's a lot more comedic like the the one issue

was essentially Bobby writing a note home to

his parents about what he's been up to in school.

And he includes the stuff, like the missions

that he's been on and everything like that. If

you remember younger Bobby Drake, he's not too

serious about anything really. Not that even

his modern older age, he's not that serious.

So you have stories like that. So that's kind

of nice. Did he begin the letter? Hello, mudda.

Hello, father. Here I'm at. Camp Xavier. No,

they didn't start it that way. But other than

that, I've watched Marvel's Iron Man and Hulk

Heroes United with a long ass title. It was a

CG animated movie, which I thought the CG wasn't

that great. It was... Probably a couple notches

above the spider -man the MTV version of spider

-man that I talked about a couple episodes ago

Probably episode Either the first one or the

third one. I don't remember at this point, but

definitely not the second Definitely not the

second one now The animation was still kind of

stiff. I don't think they got over that from

spider -man if you're looking for more of a modern

interpretation of what a comic book is, more

adult sensibilities. This isn't that. It's definitely

a kid's movie because of the lame humor and it's

got a lot of physical humor. It's like a lot

of Dick Van Dyke kind of stuff going on. I'm

glad you finished that with Dick Van Dyke. It's

a kid's cartoon. Cartoon you watch for kids.

That was the best thing about it was the actual

physical humor. I kind of just kind of zoned

out on the story for the most part. One of the

weirdest parts I found was that at one point

Hulk gets blinded and he's like blinded for a

good 10 or 15 minutes in this story. And as we

all know, Hulk has regenerative capabilities.

It would have been fixed after maybe four or

five minutes but he was out of it for a good

while and iron man was going to do surgery on

his eyes or something but i forget exactly how

that was fixed through the whole thing because

like i said i stopped kind of paying attention

it was just kind of background noise at that

point as i plinked around the internet but i

know we've kind of talked about what we would

have liked for a cg movie and i i know you guys

have i know i know chuck at least has had interest

if it was going to be a CG Marvel movie that

they should make it more like the beginning or

the cutscenes from the Marvel Ultimate Alliance

video games. If it was that kind of stuff, that

would be a really awesome CG animated movie,

but this wasn't even close to that, I don't think.

I know that probably would be rather expensive,

but I think I saw like a brief moment of that

Iron Man story talking about it and I was just

immediately turned off by the really poor animation.

It almost looked like a fan film. Yeah, it had

really weird shadowing that they used on the

characters. It was kind of blurry how the animation

came out. It wasn't very sharp at all. It reminded

me of that Iron Man armor show of like it was

that cartoon a few years ago where Iron Man was

like a young kid and was CG animated and it looked

really cheap too. I think I saw like one episode

of that. Armored Adventures or something like

that? Armored Adventures, yeah, and I just thought

the animation was just kind of weak. I think

that Marvel should stick to try and figure out

2D and have all their concentration on that and

not go with the gimmick of 3D at this point.

We get really good at 2D first and then go up

that extra dimension. Yeah, I agree. And then

the last thing I watched was a doc on Netflix,

of course. Oh, and also Marvel's Iron Man Hulk

Heroes with the title Too Long is also on Netflix.

But I watched a doc on Netflix called Her Master's

Voice. It's not any bondage kind of stuff, so

don't worry about that. It's a doc about this

ventriloquist, Nina, who is... I believe she's

more famous over in England than she is over

in the States but she's a ventriloquist that

does comedy and she's got her all her little

dummies but her she's more well known for her

monkey dummy which she's constantly around in

this this doc but essentially her mentor Ken

Campbell dies and he leaves all of his dummies

to her but she was about to go tell him that

she was thinking about quitting ventriloquism.

So now she's got all these dummies, and now she's

on an assignment from her dead mentor to kind

of go to event con in, I believe it was Kansas.

I didn't write that down, but I think it was,

I think it was Kansas. It was somewhere down

south. So she heads out that way and she's gonna

donate one of the dummies to the event museum.

It was really really weird. The convention was

like a really low -end local comic -con for you

out there so you can kind of have a connection

of what's going on. It was it wasn't really like

there was a lot of people there but it was like

a local comic -con. and she did a lot of talking

to the monkey puppet about her experiences and

thoughts which was kind of interesting because

you could tell what she was thinking throughout

the whole thing and you could see her doubting

herself and like asking herself what she's doing

here and she's just very eccentric she had a

dummy that she got from the mentor that was pretty

much a life -size dummy of the mentor Yeah, and

she, the weirdest part, she's sitting on a bed,

like she just got into her hotel room, and it's

a shitty looking hotel room, but she's got his,

the head out of the dummy, that is not sexual,

and she's blowing up, this is not sexual, I swear

to God. Where is this going right now? She's

blowing up the balls, his balls. that goes inside

the dummy to make him the full person to make

up the body of him. I probably described that

horribly. That's the least and most perverted

thing you said on this podcast yet, Greg. It's

not meant to be perverted at all, but it's totally,

if you're thinking about it, it's totally perverted.

But she puts this dummy together of him, and

then she would be laying in bed in the middle

of the night talking to him, and she is doing

his voice, and it is And by the way, she only

has one voice. It's not like she changes her

voice a lot from character to character. The

most you get is her granny character, which sounds

a little bit different from all of them, which

I thought was really good. But the rest, they

all sound the same. And then she had another

incident where she takes the old woman dummy

swimming in the swimming pool at this place.

It was really weird and she takes it into the

water She's talking back and forth with it and

she's like, oh dummy. Do you want to granny?

Do you want to go under the put your head under

the water? Oh, yes, dear. I think that'd be really

nice and Okay, or she's like I'm floating though

dear on the wooden and I'm made of cotton So

it's all floating. Can you help me down? Girl

goes yes, and she puts the dummy under the water

But the way she does it looks like she's drowning

an actual person Like anybody else looking down

from their rooms is like what the hell is going

on down there? Why are people filming this lady

drowned an old woman? Security is called a serial

killer is born. Is that the subtitle? She does

kill off her monkey at the end, spoiler alert.

She kills off the monkey, but it isn't her monkey.

She walks in front of this. I'm not sure if this

was a setup, if the people in the van were aware

of it or not, but she walks by. She's walking

through the parking lot with her monkey and she's

still pondering whether she's going to give it

up or not. And she's kind of going towards the

yeah, I'm going to give it up. And she's walking

by this van and she just kind of casually drops

it. and you see her walk a little bit further

the van pulls out and then just runs over the

monkey and like it just the van went perfectly

so she screams the monkeys right under the tire

so when they get out of the van she's like screaming

her head off and this woman gets out that was

driving who we have seen earlier in the dock

and this lady has a man voice and it's it's like

Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Oh my God, it's your

monkey. And then there was a priest in the van

magically and he did the last rites for the monkey.

I swear to God, this is exactly what happened.

And so eventually Nina goes running off with

the monkey and the other lady that ran over the

monkey is standing there going. Wait, do you

want me to buy you another monkey? It was just

freaking unreal. The whole thing was unreal.

I'm not even sure if I should recommend watching

it or not. It was the weirdest fucking thing

I've ever seen in my entire life. It reminds

me of this really strange documentary I saw called

I Think We're Alone Now. And it's about these

two guys who are like die -hard Tiffany fans

from the 1980s. Like, you know, the singer from

like the 80s. And she's in like horrible sci

-fi TV sci -fi movies at this yeah, yeah, she

does sing sometimes, but they both obviously

have certain like issues beyond like there are

certain things that you know, they are dealing

with like Mentally and it's just if I felt dirty

afterwards, so it sounds similar to that. But

uh Wow, that is I I don't even know what to say

after that. Honestly my description of the blowing

up the old man Which sounds horrible again is

better than the actual party think those because

it sounds way more sexual explained out loud

Interesting interesting and what was that called

again? It was so I can know it so I know to avoid

it. I Think probably watch it. I probably will

because I'm twisted and my wife's gonna watch

it and walk in and be like What are you watching

that happens all the time her fix that would

be great if she walked in on this But it's called

her master's voice All right You've been watching

anything else. I'm afraid to ask it this month.

I'm not that bombshell. We'll turn it over to

Chuck. I think What do you what are you been

up to? Well, that's a tough act to follow. Let

me say I Figured time once again to fill my contractual

obligations to DC and mention arrow I Know I

mentioned all the time, you know people are probably

thinking like would you freaking shut up already

about arrow? The last episode was just really

really freaking cool It had a lesser known DC

villain called The Clock King and he's basically

this really smart guy that believes like timing

is everything and it's to the point where he's

almost like obsessed and there's this really

cool opening sequence where he's kind of masterminding

this robbery and he's you know on this headset

he's calling out the times he got six seconds

until the guard turns the corner you have five

seconds to get to the stairway and it just kind

of grabs you right from the beginning of it.

I think I mentioned in one of the other podcasts

that now that they're into the second season,

they're really tying in those two storylines

now, like the past and the present storylines.

And this episode really continues that in a big,

big way. At the end of it, I was like really

freaking out. I couldn't even believe what I

saw. And the cool thing is the preview for next

week's looks even better. And it's kind of like

what I've been hoping for the series all along,

like kind of a culmination, like coming to this.

So I'm really excited to see that. I seriously

feel like, you know, breaking into the CW studios

or something and like watching the next episode

on their like on their footage reels or something.

I'll come with you, but I'll probably hang out

with the actresses. Hey, Speedy, how's it going?

Yeah, it's. I just don't think I can wait a week

to see this. I'm just like too excited. But that's

one of the things I've been watching. Another

one was actually I went back and I rewatched

the Ultimate Avengers animated movie. I think

I saw it a long time ago and honestly I couldn't

remember any of it. So you know I came across

it on Netflix and I figured well you know I might

as well you know rewatch it. I thought it was

pretty good. I loved the action. The animation

was great. Loved how they didn't alter Captain

America's story too much. They pretty much kept

him the same and he was kind of a focal point

for the movie. I didn't realize from when I'd

watched it before that Iron Man and Thor had

such a small part in that. I thought that was

okay because I'm such a big Captain America fan.

The cool thing is, the reason I brought this

up is because I noticed just how much this paralleled

the actual, like, real Avengers movie. I guess

I'd never realized, like, how much they took

from it and, like, how much it had, how much

of an influence it had on it. We kind of knew

when the Avengers came out that they were gonna

be taking stuff from, you know, the regular 616

universe and then also the Ultimate Universe.

But, uh, there was a pretty, pretty obvious influence

on it that, uh, this Ultimate Avengers movie

had on it and it was... just some small things

even like the the heavy shield presence like

nick fury meeting with those floating head hologram

people like that are kind of like the world council

or whatever that he talks to it's kind of like

how they and and shield put together the avengers

instead of the avengers just forming themselves

and stuff and a really cool thing i noticed it's

kind of quick you have to kind of keep an eye

out for it but the holding cell that they put

bruce banner in It looked an awful lot like the

containment cell in the Avengers movie that S

.H .I .E .L .D. built for the Hulk. And of course

that's where they had Loki held for a while there

in the middle of the movie. I was shocked though,

it looked just like it. It just seems like they

took so much stuff from this movie and just put

it right into the Avengers movie on the big screen.

Even the Chitauri aliens or something, that's

an obvious one. So it was kind of cool just to

go back and see see that after not remembering

it after seeing it So long ago and then you know

after seeing the actual Avengers movie and kind

of comparing them I thought that was pretty cool

if you like that at all. I would highly recommend

reading the Ultimates that that line I know you're

not really big into the ultimate Marvel universe,

but The comic the Ultimates I think is far superior

to it It does feel very watered down compared

to the actual comic it does follow it along a

little bit, but The comic book goes in a very

different direction, especially with Ultimate

Avengers 2, which gets into Black Panther, which

doesn't happen much later with the Avengers.

It is kind of funny, you do realize how much

the new movies are borrowing, almost much more

from the newer stuff, even the newer 6 .16 stuff,

than compared to the classic Avengers stuff.

Yeah, definitely. It's cool too, because you

start seeing, well this could be good or bad,

depending on your opinion, but... they're even

gearing the comics nowadays like towards the

movies so it's kind of like a reciprocating relationship

like they're kind of to kind of lead in each

other if you will so that's interesting yeah

for sure for sure have you been watching anything

else uh yeah one other thing i wanted to kind

of discuss with you guys is uh wanted to bring

up the new godzilla trailer that was just released

i think it's the second trailer i think maybe

The first one might have been a teaser trailer

or something, but have you guys gotten a chance

to see this new one? I have. How about yourself,

Greg? I have seen it. I actually watched it today

during my lunch. Yeah, I thought the first teaser

trailer was really good, actually, but for some

reason this one seems to have me even more stoked.

I think the cool thing is we get to see some

more visuals on the actual monster. It seems

like they're really going with the more classic

look of Godzilla, which is pretty cool because,

you know, the last one, you know, the corny 90s

one, he had like a kind of a weird dinosaur look,

which was cool in its own right. But it's this

is really neat to see them going back to the,

you know, the classic Godzilla. I think there's

some there's some great shots in the trailer

of like a destroyed city. You see, like the Statue

of Liberty is kind of all boogered up. Now is

this? That the Statue of Liberty in New York?

Because I don't think it is, because it looked

like this is all taking place on the West Coast.

So is it the Las Vegas? Yeah, I was going to

mention that, because there's no tall buildings

around it. And there's actually some desert and

some mountains in the background. So I don't

know if they're just using that as a tension

grabber, like, oh my god, Statue of Liberty is

destroyed. But yeah, I think you're right. It's

pretty much on the West Coast, I guess. Cause

as we know, all monsters hate monuments, so the

first thing they go for. Also, apes hate the

Statue of Liberty and now it's got transcended

to lizards now. You know what? Nobody ever goes

after the Hoover Dam. I don't know what they

got against that. Transformers did. That's true.

They didn't destroy it though. I think the trailer

looked pretty awesome. It does seem like totally

it looks like it's they're kind of taking it

serious in a way and it looks like a massive

destruction and from what I hear Godzilla may

not be the only monster in it. There may be other

Possibly interesting sweet. I like the line where

they're saying like oh in 1950s. They did nuclear

tests And they're like, oh it created it. It's

like no they actually We're trying to destroy

it. So it's like if the nuclear bomb can't destroy

it, how are they going to destroy it in the movie?

So, yeah, I thought that was I thought that was

a really interesting angle. I mean, I know like

Godzilla has kind of always been a metaphor for

like nuclear weapons and stuff ever since the

first, you know, Japanese film was released in

1954. But like this notion that all these nuclear

tests, like you said, that took place in the

Pacific. they weren't tests they were attempts

to kill this monster and like I'm kind of watching

this and I watched it a couple times but I'm

watching at that part and the idea kind of hits

me okay so could it be that within this continuity

within this movie there's that word again could

it be that like all of the advancements in nuclear

and atomic weapons were driven by a need to kill

this creature like all that time all that energy

and effort by the military scientists and everything.

It wasn't to make us a world super power or anything.

It was it was to find a way to stop Godzilla.

And I just think that's a really cool concept

to think about. And I think that is such a good

idea that they're trying to take that angle on

this one. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think that I

think that is a way to do it, to kind of bring

in the commentary to a new generation while staying

true to the old one. So I didn't like it. They

took my concept for nuke again. It looks really

good. There's still time, Greg. There's still

time. I was going to say too, I do like when

they link fictional movies to like real historical

events. And I think it's really cool. He kind

of saw it most recently in like X -Men First

Class and with the Cuban Missile Crisis and stuff

and in the beginning of The Wolverine with the

atomic bomb and stuff like that. I think it adds,

like, an extra dimension to these movies. Even

though they're totally fake and totally far -fetched,

I think it somehow just makes it more plausible.

Like, it somehow just makes you get into it a

little bit more. Well, in every fairy tale, there's

always a little bit of truth, so... That is true.

That's very true. That was very deep, Greg. Very

deep. Thank you. I'm very zen. This kind of got

me on, like, a little bit of a kind of a research

kick on Godzilla, but... I got looking into some

of the original stuff like back in 1954 and they

were talking about how the whole story is like

just the allegory for nuclear attacks and stuff

like that and they were talking about how the

monster was like it was modeled for the most

part after like some kind of dinosaur like a

t -rex and you know even like an alligator kind

of influenced it but like the skin texture Godzilla

was actually inspired by the colloidal scars

from the skin of the survivors of Hiroshima.

Yeah, and I thought that like this really morbid

stuff but that you know really represented the

fear of the Japanese people at that time. You

know because this was kind of fresh after the

nuclear bomb, the atomic bombs that we dropped

at the end of World War II and it was something

that they had a lot of fear of you know happening

again and that's really how they created this

story and they put a really interesting spin

on it. Obviously over the years he's changed

a lot like they have even portrayed him as a

hero in some ways kind of defending the earth

from other monsters and stuff like that but it's

always kind of been he's always been that threat

to cities and all kinds of stuff just like this

hugely planetary threat so but dan you mentioned

about how he might not be the only monster in

this movie and i got thinking about the very

statement that they made in the trailer about

uh the nuclear bombs were attempts to kill it

and knowing that godzilla's origin was basically

a lizard that was mutated because of the original

atomic bombs from Hiroshima and Nagasaki i thought

you know if they dropped all these nukes on it

in the pacific wouldn't this have created like

more Godzilla's or more creatures so that kind

of ties in with what you're saying like maybe

some of these other monsters are kind of you

know make appearance in this movie or even if

they're looking for sequels down the road or

like a trilogy which everything seems to be nowadays

but I think that would be pretty cool you know

way to go with it and tie it in with I thought

you were going to go Hulk Theory there for a

second Chuck Thought you're gonna go they keep

hitting it with all these nuclear bombs But it

keeps actually just does the opposite of killing

it actually makes it stronger Yeah, I like absorbing

the same type of radiation. That's I thought

that's what you're going for it first Yeah, I

mean there's a lot of cool things they could

do with it because it's just yeah It's an interesting

story like at its heart like it's just the definition

of an old classic like you just have that solid

plotline And you can just kind of go from there

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure if it does well, there'll

be plenty of opportunity for seagulls. I do wonder

though, like, how it's all gonna tie in. It does

have me wondering why they're not, like, kind

of hinting at the fact that there's other monsters

in it, because apparently at the Comic Cognitive

footage they did show there's, like, a really

giant scorpion -type of creature and stuff like

that, too. So it does have me super excited,

I think, that it could really bring in this character

in for a new age. And the guy who was directing

it did this movie called Monsters a few years

ago, and... it was a very small independent film

and about basically these monsters were part

of the united states and the creature design

was really interesting and he did it basically

on the laptop so i'm super excited to see what

he can do with an actual big budget yeah i think

that's actually Netflix so if you wanted to see

what the guy did previously you may want to check

it out, but we all know what Greg's watching

It's not the most exciting movie in the world

But it does give you kind of an idea of what

he may be able to do It's it's one of those films

that you know They did on a shoestring budget

and did like gorilla style because they're filming

and I don't think people in the background are

actors But they're just people who are actually

at that location at that time Yeah, I also wanted

to ask you, Dan, because I think you may be the

only one of us that have seen Pacific Rim. I'm

not sure, Greg, if you saw it or not. I saw it.

You did see it. Well, of course, it's Gizmo del

Toro. Of course I saw it. I haven't seen it yet.

I've been dying to see it, but I haven't gotten

the chance. But could you guys see like an obvious

kind of Godzilla influence on that movie or?

Oh, yeah, it's definitely interesting. Like by

the kaiju is what they call them. And it's actually

like a... It's a Japanese word, isn't it? Yeah,

and it's like they're kind of monsters basically.

So yeah, huge influence in Godzilla and that

type of stuff and anime in general. The mechs

is a big part of that too. So it's a lot different

tonally than Godzilla, a little bit more cartoonish

in a good way. So it's kind of cool seeing the

different sides of it. This is getting completely

off track, but I just remembered that I read

something this week that said, I guess Brian

Singer's original design for... the sentinels

in x -men days of future past were too close

to the robots in pacific rim so he kind of had

to change his design a little bit and he didn't

really get to do what he wanted originally so

um and that guy gets the short end of the stick

because there was also a scene in x -men first

class that got cut because it was too similar

to a scene in inception with like the spinning

room so they had to cut it because it was like

it was very similar between like emma frost and

xavier where they're going to do this like mind

battle in a spinning room, but they changed it

and cut it because of inception. It'd be like

the same thing. I was glad that he had something

that was similar because I actually like what

they did in first class with their telepathy.

Yeah. Yeah. So he does have good ideas. It's

just he comes up with them too late and then

he has to change them. He's like the average

man on the street. Now he's coming up with great

ideas, but it's always his second too short.

Yeah, like, you know, you're walking along and

you see something like, hey, I thought of that

like 10 years ago, you know, but just didn't

pursue it. Yeah, my dad said that about Antilock

Breaks. He had... He figured out Antilock Breaks

and then like a couple years later, they came

out with them. Nice. All right, but anything

else before we take a break and get into our

top ten or top five favorite cartoons? I was

going to say shit, top ten. I only have five.

I'm screwed. That's about all I've been up to

so... We're just gonna take a quick break here

when we come back while we'll be counting down

our top five favorite cartoons, so we will see

ya in a bit! Is this thing on? Oh goody! Why

hello there! It's your dear old Uncle Joker here!

I bet you're asking yourself, what could I be

possibly doing here of all places? Well, I'm

laughing at the fact that this - New podcast

presented by Keycast Radio is called Legends

of the Dark Knight. Who the heck knew the bat

was so popular? Ugh! Join Steve, Mike, and sometimes

Taylor for reviews on the greatest DC animated

universe, Cartoon, to ever meet Gotham City.

So join Moi for the talk of the town, or I'll

send Captain Clown after you. He gets mighty

angry when he doesn't get to have his garbage

skull. So put on a nice big smile, and join us

for the next Geekcast Radio Network Podcast,

Legends of the Dark Knight! Alright, and welcome

back. If you listened to our last episode, and

if you haven't, stop what you're doing and go

back and do that, but we entered a listener amount,

I believe from Eric Hutchinson, who asked us

to count down our top five favorite TV shows

and movies. And we're gonna follow that up too

with this week, but just gonna focus on one category

this week, and we're gonna look at our top five

favorite cartoons. And we're sticking mostly

with television cartoons. I think animated movies

would be a separate list. We talked about last

week where we didn't have much crossover this

week We might have a little bit more because

you know, we all grew up around the same time.

So a lot of this may be Attracted towards a childhood.

Some of it might be newer stuff. I have a little

bit of a mixture of both so I'm just gonna count

down our top five here and I will kick things

off with my number five and it's one I'm pretty

sure no one else is gonna have on their list

and some may not be aware of it and It's not

the most common cartoon out there. It's one that

came out outs like the probably when I was too

old to watch cartoons, but I was anyways, because,

you know, I'm a geek and that's what I do. ABC

had, I don't know if you guys ever listened to

the One Saturday Morning cartoons and stuff they

had, like in the early 2000s, late 90s or so.

Sounds familiar. I don't really remember too

well, though. It's kind of like when they transitioned

a lot of stuff from Nickelodeon to ABC, like

they had Doug and a few other cartoons. You know,

that cartoon Recess was very popular then. That

was kind of the big one they had. But this wouldn't

tell the weekenders and I know you guys heard

of it. Probably not It's hard. I'm familiar the

way I kind of describe it. It's almost like friends

for middle schoolers Basically, it takes over

takes over three days. It's these three friends

who all kind of get together for the weekend

and gets into their issues and What I really

loved about it was like the tone of it. It never

talked down the kids It was but never was too

savvy. It got into some serious stuff, but not

very often, but it was just really clever It

was kind of just your wackiness. It wasn't something

like you look at like a recess which was so off

the wall obviously not like factual. This one

really was more set in some sort of reality.

They had a lot of different running jokes like

there was this pizza parlor that they would go

to and every week it would have a different theme

like one week it's like ending in a Jones theme

the next week it's outer space themed and all

these other different stuff and I think the character

is really relatable in some ways or just well

thought out. Phil Lamar did a voice. for one

of the characters and the name TJ and they all

have different personalities. A cartoon that

I don't know, something was just really welcoming

about it that I really liked. Maybe because it

came on the weekend and it just made me very

happy that it was a weekend because I was sleeping

in and there was no school. I miss those days.

Now weekend means I gotta go do grocery shopping

and not nearly as fun as it used to be, but still

fun. That is my number five, The Weekenders.

Greg, I'll switch over to you. What is your number

five? Well, once again, I have no numbers. Actually,

you know what? I should say mine aren't really

numbered either. Oh, really? Yeah, my movies

and TV were, but these were so hard and some

of these I haven't watched in such a long time.

I don't feel like I can number them. My number

one is pretty much my number one, but the rest

are pretty random. Yeah, and I kind of have a

preface here that I watched a majority of these

cartoons when I was ultra little. And as I've

said before in the other podcasts, other episodes,

my memory is shot. So I probably don't really

have much to say about them. I just remember,

oh, I really liked this one. And so the first

one I was kind of had to choose between a whole

bunch of them that kind of ran the same category

of animated animals on the Disney Channel. One

of my favorites and the song has been stuck in

my head this entire week along with the other

ones actually but I picked this one as the top

one the Disney animated shows and the guys are

probably gonna make fun of me for it but my first

crush was actually a cartoon character from the

rescue Rangers and her name was gadget good choice

good choice and the cartoon in the crush I can't

can I blame you for that she was she was a cute

little mouse yes she was and very intelligent

too All I can remember is... That's all you need

to remember, that's the best part. That line

of shows, like that Disney afternoon cartoon

block was amazing with the shows in general and

then every show had like the best theme song

ever, DuckTales. I don't want to I don't want

to say more because I don't want to step over

anyone's list just in case they have them but

yeah that I highly thought of a lot of these

for mine but none mean the cut I figured someone

would talk about them but I love this and so

many of those cartoons from that period. Yeah

that was the heyday back then. And it was a great

combination between kind of like the two characters

were Indiana Jones essentially with Chip and

then you had Dale as your magnum PI which he

really wasn't a magnum PI at all. It had great

characters. It had Chip and Dale, Gadget, Monterey

Jack, and what was his name? I want to say Zipper,

the little bug dude that was Monterey Jack's

friend. He was essentially just a bug flying

around. You've got to love a guy named after

cheese. Well, he had an obsession with cheese.

He had those cheese attacks where... There would

be like cheese laying out and he would almost

jeopardize the whole mission because he'd be

like going after this cheese and cheese and this

zombie like zombie like state going after cheese.

I get those too. I also loved that it spawned

a video game that was one of my favorite video

games when I was younger too. It had the Chippendale

Rescue Rangers video game for NES where you could

I like to play the two -person run through of

a mission and you can kind of screw around with

the other person that's playing and pick up their

character and throw them into the enemies and

pretty much essentially kill them. And I believe

that was the first game that I saw that actually

did that. There are probably other ones out before

that, but this was the first one that I saw and

I thought it was a load of fun. And I believe

it was the actual first game that I ever really

defeated, got through all the way, so. It's another

great memory that kind of put this in my top

five. Yeah, that was a fun game. Doctails had

a fun game, too. I couldn't get past that one,

though. That one was a bitch. Yeah, they actually

just did an HD remake of Doctails and not Chippendales,

but maybe if we get lucky. I haven't really seen

any of those on DVD to buy or anything which

is kind of depressing because I would pick up

a couple of those. I even checked Netflix the

one night as I was making the list to see if

I couldn't find some of the episodes to watch

and kind of get reacclimated so I could talk

more about it. I can't I couldn't really find

a majority of the stuff that I have in my top

five and if I did it's really expensive. Yeah,

hopefully they will because there's that the

Disney and Netflix do have like a deal with one

another. So yeah, hopefully they will you know,

come on now. All right, Chuck over to you. What

is your what is? on your list. I don't want to

say number five because I'm guessing maybe they're

not numbered either. I tried to do my best to

number these. They could probably change on every

any given day really depending on what mood I'm

in but uh I'm going to be really transparent

with this list and you guys are going to pick

up a pattern so I'm just going to spoil it now

and say these are all superhero animated series.

That's kind of where my interests were back in

the day but uh well even somewhat now too. My

number five that I'm going to go with is Avengers

Earth Mightiest Heroes. This isn't the current

Avengers cartoon that's on TV now, which is called,

that one's Avengers Assemble. This is the one

right before that and it came out in 2010. It

ran for 52 episodes, which was a pretty long

time. I really liked the stories a lot. There

were a lot of comic elements to it. There was

a lot of... a lot of story arcs that I recognized

from reading the comics I thought that the animation

was really great in it and I thought the voice

acting was terrific too they really fit their

characters especially guys like you know Thor

is kind of a hard voice to pull off like you

don't want to sound too cheesy or anything but

I think they do a great job with that I think

I particularly liked the story arcs that involved

like Ultron, Kang the Conqueror and stuff like

that I think those were done really well even

like the masters of evil hydra stuff and then

at the end they do like a galactus episode too

which is pretty cool this kind of reminded me

of some of those cartoons that were done in the

90s i think they did a really great job on this

for being more modern cartoons so that's that's

pretty much my number five yeah i really dug

that cartoon too i haven't seen the second season

yet but i love the melding of the old and new

And how they made that work that and it's a huge

step up. I don't know if you ever watched the

Avengers cartoon from the 90s Yeah, don't don't

do it Yeah, this is a big step up It's like let's

do the Avengers cartoon, but let's not have Captain

America Thor or Iron Man and Make them into like

the Power Rangers because that's gonna work because

they all had like different like, you know Morphing

into like armor and stuff like that. It was yeah

the weird armors and stuff It was not ideal to

say the least, but back to me. My next one, it

kind of makes sense when you think about it because

I'm a big movie fan and talking about cartoons

and this one is a show that I think did not get

the life it deserved. It could have gone on for

longer. I may have watched this when I was maybe

too young to watch it and it's highly influenced

by another cartoon that's probably better overall,

more iconic, but I still love it. And that show

is The Critic. We left Kevin home alone! And

he's only 23! But first, let's start with Arnold

Schwarzenegger's latest film, Rabbi P .I. It's

the story of a Chicago cop who goes undercover

as a Hasidic Jew. Eat lead, Rabbi. Sorry, that's

not cold shot. Alright, if you are a real rabbi,

circumcise this child. Abba Nagila, baby. Because

I love you people, I won't force you to watch

the musical number. Well, maybe just a little.

Uh, Dreadle, Dreadle, Dreadle, I made you out

of clay. I don't know if you guys ever watched

this. It came out in the 90s. It was really the

first show. John Lovitz. Probably the funniest,

maybe the only time John Lovitz has been funny.

But I just love it because it... how it would

make fun of movies in clever ways and it was

just really well written. It was self -aware

and it was like the first cartoon to really try

to capitalize on the Simpsons lore and it in

some bad ways because I think I think uh the

character actually Jay showed up in an episode

of the Simpsons as an obviously like tie -in

but I just really find that show really funny.

It was only on for a few seasons but I still

really liked it. Like I said, I'm a big movie

fan and I do, like, movie criticism, and obviously

it's more comedic, but it's still really good

and, like, the character of Jay is so sympathetic

and it's such, like, a putz, but a putz in a

good way. Not really much more to say about it.

I haven't watched it in recently. It's not really

on anything anymore, but I think it's a show

that's kind of been forgotten, but I really did

dig that show, so. Alright, Greg, I'm gonna pass

it back on to you. What is next on your list?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles! Heroes in a half -shell! Turtle

Power! They're the world's most fearsome fighting

team! We're really hip! They're heroes in the

half -shell! And they're green! Hey, get a grip!

When an evil shredder attacks, These turtle boys

don't cut them no slack! Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! When they're

tough and Nice. Good choice, good choice. All

these songs were stuck in my head this entire

week. I'm so glad we're getting this out of the

way. This is perfect because this was my next

one too, actually, so I can jump right in here

with you. And I was going to say, if you grew

up in the 90s, this cartoon is the one that you

would be watching. Like this, like if you were

like six when this came on, you had to watch

the show. Everybody was watching the show. It

was fun, energetic, awesome characters, crazy

villains. Unfortunately, it did bring surf talk

into the lexicon, so that was one of the downsides,

but... It was my favorite version of the Ninja

Turtles. I never really read the comics at all,

but this is my favorite version, even over the

movie version, which is still pretty freaking

awesome in my book, except when they got to the

later movie number four. But this is one of my

favorites, and I wish I could have... Seeing

this one again, I wish there was something out

there DVD -wise. I think there probably are,

but it's like, oh, here's episodes 2 and episode

10 and episode 24 on this DVD. Here you go, have

fun with that. I would like to watch them in

sequential order. Yeah, I think they might be

collecting the seasons now. I'm not sure. I thought

I saw them somewhere. But anyway, yeah, this

is a... This is a classic show. I mean, what

else can you say? That theme song that Greg was

doing a pretty good job at actually. I mean,

that's awful. I did an awful job. Oh, come on.

Cut yourself some slack. But no, that was a great

theme song. It's just kind of made it like just

recognized throughout the whole world. Like that

song just became so catchy and just so recognizable.

I have some great childhood memories watching

this show. not only from the show but what came

from the show and that was like the toys and

then the movies like Greg talked about afterwards

and I'm pretty sure it came out in 1987 and it

ran somewhere around like 96 so you're looking

at you know almost like nine or ten years of

this I mean just a lot of great stuff there it

really started my love for the turtles because

like Greg I never really read the comics I was

kind of too young that point, but... I think

two is not a good age to start reading a very

violent comic book. Yeah, especially the comics

were a little bit more violent than the cartoon.

One cool thing I wanted to bring up was the voice

actors in this show. There's a couple notable

ones. Raphael was done by Rob Paulson, who is

a really, really seasoned veteran at voice acting.

I mean, if you have a second, sometime just go

on IMDB and... Search Rob Paulson and just look

at the list of voice acting work that he's done.

It is ridiculously extensive and then also The

shredder was done by James Avery who of course

was uncle Phil from Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

So that that's pretty cool and Rob Paulson's

actually been interviewed by the cast radio network

a few times and He's actually back for Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles. I think he's doing the

new one too. I think he's like Raphael or Michelangelo

now Yeah, I did hear that. This isn't on my list,

but in all likely it maybe should have been or

it like you guys, we came out on that age where

this cartoon was huge. It was everywhere. I had

a ton to the toys. I'm pretty sure I went as

one of the turtles for Halloween one year, because

that's what you had to do. This was a phenomenon

of all phenomenons. I remember, you know, a big

part of my childhood, even though this isn't

a cartoon, but go ninja, go ninja, go. That was

Vanilla Ace's only hit. Yeah. From watching my

life, that to me was one of the best songs ever

made. And this cartoon also crosses over gender

barriers too, because there's this girl that

I used to work with at my old job and... She's

like eight years younger than I am, and she is

totally Ninja Turtles obsessed. I believe I've

seen pictures on her Facebook where she's decked

out in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gear. It's

a little bit more on the slutty side, but pretty

much every Halloween costume is. But I think

it's also one that kind of crosses over to the

ladies too, even. And you talked about having

a crush on a character. I mean, I think a lot

of boys had a crush on April O 'Neil I mean that

yellow jump suit come on Love to see her peel

that off And one thing too, I remember I mean

you guys probably played this but the Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtle arcade game Yes, man like

that level with the fire in the first level.

I mean that to me was like You guys remember

top dog. I know no one listen to this probably

that remembers it at all Yeah, I think it was

a local kind of thing. But yeah, I remember going

that game was just awesome. I know it came back.

Look, I think it's on like online. But yeah,

the turtles. I need to go watch those cartoons

like now. I have a funny story about about this,

too. Actually, it kind of relates to my early

belief in Santa Claus because of the Ninja Turtles.

Early belief? What do we? Wait, what? He's not

real? What the hell? No, you dropping. There

are people listening to this crying, weeping

openly. I hope we don't have any six -year -old

listeners, like honestly, but I don't think this

is the worst thing that they've heard. You mean

my talk about this woman blowing up balls and

taking that out? That comes to mind first, yeah.

Actually, it was from when I was in kindergarten.

Some guy came to our classroom dressed up as

Santa Claus and he had a big bag of actual toys.

We really didn't know that he was coming or anything.

I remember everybody had to go up and sit on

his lap and tell him what you wanted for Christmas,

and he'd actually reach into his bag and give

you something. At the time, I was all caught

up in this turtle craze. I loved the toys and

everything. He was saying tubular, Tawabunga.

Definitely. A lot of these toys were kind of

on my list, so to speak. You know I had mentioned

even something about the Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles to him and he reaches in the bag and

he gets out this I think it was a figure of Rocksteady,

and I just went nuts I was like holy crap like

this is so awesome like how the heck did Santa

know exactly what I wanted you know and From

there it was just like oh Santa's definitely

real you know like he knew exactly what I wanted

like he gave me this rocksteady figure. There's

no other explanation at all. But you know as

you get older you kind of realize like how big

that whole ninja turtle phenomenon was and it's

kind of a safe bet to get a you know bag full

ninja turtle toys because a lot of kids are going

to be wanting those. What grade was that? That

was in kindergarten actually. Okay yeah because

yeah then we were in different kindergartens.

I'm like I don't remember that but we were in

different schools at that point. For those that

don't know, like, Chuck and I were pretty much

in the same grade from second grade to then on

for the most part, so. Yeah, we have known each

other a long time. Anyways, I think since Chuck,

that was on your list as well, I'll bring it

back to myself. And that is the thing about great

cartoons. I think almost all great cartoons,

especially kids cartoons, need to have amazing

opening songs. And I don't know if this is as

good. as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a little

bit of a different take on it. But this cartoon

to me is such a smartly written as an adult.

This is a cartoon I appreciate even more. And

I used to teach. And when I used to teach, I

used to use elements of this cartoon because

there was a lot of great stuff that you would

do that was both educational and fun. But it

was also really inside baseball with movies that

would do a lot of comments on like the process

of movies making fun of Steven Spielberg a lot

because he was a producer of it and that show

is The Animaniacs. Come join the Warner Brothers

and the Warner Sister Dog. Just for fun, we run

around the Warner movie lot. They lock us in

the tower whenever we get caught. But we break

loose, and then the moose, and now you know the

thoughts. We're Animaniacs. Dog is cute and yuck

-o -yucks. Whack -o -prack, swizz -o -snacks,

wop -a -plink, and blizz -o -sacks. We're Animaniacs.

and the brain who wants to rule the universe.

With letters brought together, Slappy locks them

with their purrs. What you say's his mini -glory

that sings on purrs. The writers with we have

no script, my father to rehearse. We're Animaniacs.

We have pay -for -play contracts. Exactly, I'm

not gonna sing cuz I don't want people to stop

listening I've already done it twice. They're

totally gone. We're just speaking to each other.

Well after my Ghostbusters remark last week,

I'm surprised people kept listening But yeah

Animaniacs was just a brilliant cartoon You have

a multitude of different cartoons within that

you have like the good feathers, which at the

time I had no idea that was a parody of the good

Goodfellas, one of my favorite movies, but they

made that work. It is R -rated, you know, movie

about the mob made into a parody cartoon for

kids. And it works. You have Pinky and the Brain,

of course, which eventually got their own TV

show. Love! Exactly. And, you know, Rob Paulson

was a big part of that. Maurice LaMarche, again,

like it has a veteran voice acting staff. And

I talked about using elements. There's a great...

great song with like wacko doing the capitals

and the countries and stuff like that which kind

of funny though if you listen to the country

song a lot of those countries don't exist anymore

or they changed already so it's just kind of

funny uh but it it was it's such a great show

and like i said it holds up well there are a

lot of cartoons i watched as a kid and now as

an adult i'm like ah it's not as good as i remembered

it obviously it doesn't age that well Animaniacs

holds up really well if you look at something

like tiny tunes that came out like before it

It was kind of a predecessor. I don't think that

holds up nearly as well as animaniacs. It was

just a brilliant show And I didn't realize this

way back when but you know, it's the Warner Brothers

in the sister dot Well, the dot was this was

the period in the Warner Brothers logo. That's

where her name comes from It's just there's so

many different levels to that show which like

I said There's a lot of jokes in there for adults

and kids and it's it's rightfully was highly

acclaimed at the time. So That one, like, I guess

she kind of narrowly missed my list. That was

going to be, like, one of my honorable mentions.

And in particular... The good fella the good

feathers segment. I used to love that Bobby pesto

and squid. I thought they were hilarious and

Especially when you know, the one the little

one that was supposed to be like Joe Pesci You

know, he was always busting the other one like

you cool to my bird you cool to my bird And then

you get in this huge fight and there's a big

dust cloud and they're like rolling across the

street or something That's hilarious. Very good

times have such a great show. All right, Greg

on to you. What's next on your list? Well, I

think this one's gonna have a bit of crossover.

Batman, the animated series. Perfect. We are

right on cue, Greg. Do we do that again? Yeah,

this is my next one. I actually rewatched a couple

of the episodes, but it was actually a present

for somebody else, and they were kind enough

to let me watch along, but something happened

and... You should have got him a Ferrari. Well,

something happened and I they took the the discs

and So I was kind of left without them and Haven't

really been able to get them again. They are

expensive on DVD to be quite honest. They are

not cheap But it was great quality of animation.

The storylines were great. It felt like you were

watching a comic book and it was that one step

from comic book to almost reality that's really

great and if you can achieve that it's just awesome

and when you're a kid it's really awesome and

one of my favorite fun facts from that is they

didn't animate the show on regular white paper

they they used black paper instead because it

made it the show darker and it took place at

night when Batman's prowling around. So instead

of coloring in huge sections of white paper with

black pen, they just filled in white lines instead.

I just thought that was brilliant. had some great

people working on there like Bruce Timm, very

popular DC animation guy and I think he's pretty

much involved in everything that DC does with

their animated stuff kind of goes through him

and he's he's what made DC animation what it

is today so much better than Marvel even though

Marvel's kind of catching up just a little bit.

Yeah definitely I agree this this is another

I think big fan favorite. A lot of kids in the

90s started liking Batman because of the show.

Like Greg was talking about, the stories were

very intense and very riveting and I thought,

I think it really holds up well even for like

an older audience today. But the best thing about

this series in my opinion was the spectacular

voice acting. You have like, in my opinion, two

of the greatest voice actors ever and Kevin Conroy

as Batman and Mark Hamill playing the Joker.

You just knocked out Catwoman and left her? Aw,

come on, crockers. Didn't I say there's more

than one way to get someone? Even as I speak,

Catwoman is being trussed up at the Pussykins

Pet Food Factory. First thing tomorrow, I'm sending

a lovely case of cat food to Batman. I don't

think so. Was it something I said? Well, well,

an imposter in our midst. Risking everything

for your kitty, Batman? You're not getting out

of this one. Maybe. But I'm not bad with traps

myself. Christmas and birthdays and stuff like

that and you know taking me to the mall when

the new action figure came out and stuff like

that Just just really good times and also This

this show really had some iconic music as well

like the theme in the beginning Which was it

was just like music, but it was just like really

like it just captured that kind of dark night

Element to it was really great stuff And then

the show also influenced the comic books right

back. The comics influenced the show, and the

show influenced the comics. One of DC's all -star

villainesses, Harley Quinn, came from this show,

so it had a lot of impact on what DC was doing

in its books. So I thought that was also pretty

neat. That I did not know, actually, because

I wasn't into the... The comics still kind of

later on as far as the DC especially, but that's

interesting Yeah, I mean I there's no doubt to

me if you were gonna ask me What are some of

the best animated cartoons ever that would probably

be number one or number two of my last? It's

not my favorite probably should be like I said,

but put a little bit different spin on mine it

is similar to what you guys were saying pretty

much summed it up well, but it is a big reason

why I think a lot of people love Batman because

of what it did. You know, heavy influence from

the 1989 Batman movie, especially with the score

like you mentioned, Chuck. That was a cartoon

that was clearly not just modeled to kids. That

was primary focus on just making a really great

Batman cartoon. And if kids liked it, good. Pretty

brilliant on so many levels. Definitely. Alright,

back to me. And I'm gonna guess if there's one

cartoon that's on everyone's list, it's gonna

have to be this one. And I won't sing, but I

may hum. And that's simply na na na na na na

na na na na Of course and I put and see that

was even bad the reason I think I got in the

comic books This is the reason I probably am

a geek on the way. I am and that is a cartoon

of the x -men crossover crossover crossover We

cross the streams Very true, I figured this would

have to be in our list bonus points finish him

I remember watching this as a kid and just being

blown away by the storytelling, the characters,

falling in love with Wolverine, but also just

being fascinated with characters like Magneto.

And I'm like, well, this is a villain, but he's

not just a villain. He has, like, different dimensions

to him. He's kind of good and just like that.

That dichotomy of that character and how its

relationships how I saw even as a kid the metaphor

is that we're in that with the X -Men and it

just made me fall in love with that world and

to we talked about toys I got so many toys for

the X -Men that like drive my toy collecting

for a long time. I went from like GI Joe's to

a little bit of turtles to GI Joe's and sit right

to X -Men and The first X -Men Tory I still remember

which one I bought and that was of cable because

I loved GI Joe and I'd like the X -Men and now

this is Mutant with a gun so it was like the

perfect combination and he's still been one of

my favorite characters since then mutant with

a gun and balding Seating hairline and white

hair and a metal arm is kind of like terminator.

It was like the perfect combination though I

think terminator I don't know if I was even old

enough to understand terminator at the time but

something about it just captured my attention

and had me in love with that cartoons ever since

then so Yeah, it was definitely like your gateway

drug to comic books that I think this is Between

this and my my next -door neighbor. This is essentially

how I got into reading comic books and everything

and It's just great and this is kind of the show

that influenced me to start collecting x -men

comic books and There's a lot of great storylines

from the comics that they put in to the series

itself. It's just great. I don't know what else

to say. I think Dan pretty much covered it pretty

damn well. Yeah, this actually was my number

one on my list, but I have no problem switching

around. This is a really great show. Like Greg

said, they do a lot of comic storylines, and

they're epic storylines, too. They really drew

you in and piqued your interest. And I think

there was just something mature about it, too.

They did some big ones like Days of Future Past,

they did Phoenix Saga, some of the Apocalypse

stories and stuff like that. So many cool characters

in these, so many cool villains. You could pick

a favorite. You had so many to choose from. There

were so many different mutants and different

characters. It was just craziness. And there

was never a dull moment. And I think really the

great thing about this show, though, is that

it had comedy. and you kind of had to be a little

older to get the jokes and to kind of see what

they were trying to do but I think it was written

at a higher level than what they kind of were

shooting for and what they kind of got I think

it was written like higher than that I think

it holds up well for a more mature audience because

even going back and watching them when I was

older you kind of see little random parts That

are like references to something that you know

only an older person would get and it just gives

you like a good chuckle You know also like Dan

mentioned the the perfect requirement for a great

cartoon is a good theme song Just that electric

guitar. There's just something about that. You

know I believe that the that beginning song I

believe Joe Perry from Aerosmith had something

to do with that song as well. I believe I read

that somewhere Nice. Interesting. Yeah, it was

just really, I guess I have a question for you

guys. I don't know if you have another X -Men

cartoon on your list, but if you're gonna name

another really, what would be your other favorite

X -Men cartoon besides the 90s version of it?

Probably Wolverine and the X -Men. Yeah. That

was really good. I did like the last season of

X -Men Evolution really a lot when it got away

from the whole like, save by the bell meets the

X -Men. Which character was screeching it was

nightcrawler I mean nightcrawler I thought he

was more Fez from that 70s show I mean I guess

that too it was a little bit of combination of

both but the second season it got a lot better

it when I introduced like the apocalypse storyline

and Stuff like that like the it was like hitting

on a high note And then of course that's when

it gets cancelled that one's really good the

Wolverine X -Men's probably would be my next

favorite one I can't really think of any other

X -Men cartoons really at the top of my head.

I really enjoyed Cal Dodd as Wolverine. I thought

he was phenomenal. And his voice, that's the

voice I hear when I'm reading Wolverine in the

comics. Like, that's the voice running through

my head. It's that dark, greedy voice. Like,

it's just classic. Yeah, and the voice for Gamut

too. And when I read comics, those are the voices

I hear for the X -Men. Wolverine are so funny

in those I remember you watching those as adult

and he'd always have some standout moment that

would just make you laugh like punching Cyclops

in the stomach and then saying next time I use

these and then pulls out his claws just There

was one too where they were trying to prevent

a launch of a rocket or something and they were

all kind of like Standing around and all the

sudden Wolverine just darts across the screen

and he stops and he looks back and then he keeps

running It was the most random thing but they

throw these funny things in there like that that

you don't pick up on as a kid But when you go

back and watch them now, it's just hilarious

They're like the one episode where I think it's

beast or Wolverine has like Howard a duck shirt

on for no apparent reason Yeah, I think it's

the beast. Yeah, very nice. Very nice Alright,

so that was all of our number 2s basically, or

however you want to say it. Again, we are X -Men

fans and I think that cartoon is a big reason

why. But I guess to get, like I said, I had a

solid number 1 and this is very much my number

1. I know it's a show some people have issues

with. It can be very abrasive, it can be very

controversial. It's so much more than that. It's

to me one of the last great satires we have.

I know like my wife hates this show in particular

and I can see that but to me there's a certain

level brilliance of it. Its creators Trey Stoneham

and Parker are just to me geniuses on so many

levels and that show of course is South Park.

I know a lot of people like I said have issues

with it and kind of look at the broad humor and

just think it's kind of gross or it's just trying

to shock you for shock purposes but I think it's

so much more than that. I think it has a great

look at our culture and it's been able to keep

up with modern times and by its format. There's

this great documentary called Six Days to Air

that kind of gets into how it's made and literally

made in six days. And it's able to stay current

and comment on things that are happening right

now. And I think that's allowed it to kind of

stay alive where shows like The Simpsons have

kind of gone downhill. South Park to me has still

stayed pretty consistent throughout the years.

it goes after that taboo and it's It stays true

to its like theme of either you can make fun

of everything you can make fun of nothing to

them like nothing sacred and they look at everything

in a comedic sense and aren't afraid to shy away

from any type of topic or anything that made

people may be scared about approaching and they

don't I think do it with a malice or do it with

like evil intentions I think they do it because

they want to Really get into it and really look

at it at a different angle You never really know

what angle they're gonna go after there, you

know They kind of attack the absurdity of the

world We live in in a really smart intelligent

way and they're just so crazy themselves and

they push boundaries Which I think is an important

aspect of it and they create so many great characters

Eric Cartman is like our modern -day Archie bunker

Kenny, of course, and I think it started as this

kind of gross out comedy, but it grew into something

so much more. So that's my number one. I love

the fact that they keep busting Kanye West. The

whole time you were talking, all I could think

of, I think it was the last episode that aired

and I just kept thinking of him. Yeah, I'm the

gay fish. And he was trying to defend Kim Kardashian

to the class that she wasn't a troll. Or no,

she wasn't a hobbit. I'm sorry. She wasn't a

hobbit. The things I come up with are just so

insane. And it doesn't always work. I mean, some

of the episodes can be duds, but considering

how long they've been around, it's pretty incredible.

So yeah. And they come up with that stuff pretty

damn quick. They have a... a doc on Netflix about

the show. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend

getting on Netflix if it's still there. They

have a whole kind of behind the scenes for like

a week of what they do there over at their studios

to come up with an episode of South Park. It

had to be my number one. It's I thought about

like, you know, The Simpsons obviously, which

is a great show of mine that I loved as a kid,

but I haven't watched it in the last 10 years.

So I really can't feel comfortable putting it

in my top five, but that's pretty much all I

have to say about mine. So Greg, I guess I'll

throw it back to you. What is last on your list?

It's another modern day classic. The Venture

Brothers. I tried to get both of you into watching

this. I think I kind of failed miserably, but

it's still one of my favorites and I try to recommend

it to everybody. I haven't really been keeping

up with it too well because there was a period

where the guys working on it kind of fell behind

and they kept moving around and seasons kept

getting delayed, but they're still out there.

They keep getting renewed. It's got everything

a geek would love. It's got all these deep references,

it's set, it's homages and satires to some of

the most popular stuff in existence, cartoons,

comics, anything pop culture. It's everything

I like in the world of entertainment. It's got

humor, it's got adventure, it's got superheroes,

cultural references, and it's got ridiculous

stuff going on. I just love the humor. It's got

Patrick Warburton doing voices. Who doesn't enjoy

Patrick Warburton talking? And to top it off,

they've got an amazing soundtrack for that show.

J .G. Thirwell does a great job with the music.

I have a couple of songs from the show on my

iPod, actually, and I listen to that a lot when

I'm on the treadmill. It's instrumental stuff

and it's kind of like, it's kind of got like

an old school James Bond type of vibe to it.

It's a great show. It's very freaking funny.

If you're interested, I'd recommend looking up

some YouTube clips of their entrance to the space

station. I think that's a great start off to

get you hooked. Maybe not the first episode,

but watch them get onto the space station first,

maybe on YouTube or something. I think there's

clips of it on there. Guess that's all I really

have to say that watch venture brothers. I think

I need to take a look at that. I have really

not Watched it that much, but I've heard a lot

of great stuff from you and a lot of other people

so it's got a huge huge following they they're

over at San Diego for the comic -con all the

time and they have a huge audience they're very

Excited about what they're doing and stuff. Yeah,

yeah, I know there's there's pretty pretty strong

fan base for that show I see every comic con

I've gone to always see shirts for the Venture

Brothers, no doubt. Alright Chuck, on over to

you. It's your moment of truth. What is last

on your list? Well, last on my list, like I said,

probably X -Men was my number one. But this one

was like right there with it. It's a really tough

decision. And that's Spider -Man, the animated

series. This is another show that was a big part

of my youth. This one probably more than any

other one kind of got me Into reading comics

this one and the x -men one, but I think the

spider -man one a little bit more even This this

kind of had some Revolutionary animation, I think

they started dabbling with some computer animation

in this one along with the regular Drawn animation

and they kind of started mixing him in on some

of their episodes and stuff didn't really you

know Come out the best because it's kind of really

noticeable, but you know it's just something

they're in 2d Yeah, it's something that they

were trying out at the time it you know work

pretty well But I think what I like the most

about this was Just the great stories and the

great sagas. I think it mirrored the comics really

well and I just loved all the cool villains to

you. There was a ton of villains Spider -man

has a great rogues gallery and they were so diverse

with their powers. They were so colorful, just

really fascinating. This, like, in particular,

I love the Secret Wars storyline that they did.

They change a little bit, but it kind of mirrors

the Secret Wars storyline that was done in the

comics and stuff. And also, a great story arc

from this animated series was The Six Forgotten

Warriors, where Spider -Man teams up with Captain

America and they have the... defeat Red Skull

and Electro. I thought that was a great story

too at the end. They kind of get into stuff with

like the Clone Saga too, like some some of the

really like bullet points from like Spider -Man's

history and stuff. But this one actually had

some pretty cool voice actors as well. This had

Mark Hamill as Hobgoblin. He kind of had a recurring

role in that. Ed Asner was actually J. Jonah

Jameson. He kind of did that classic you know

dark and gritty voice. and something that I think

J .K. Simmons really based his off of in the

Spider -Man movie with Tobey Maguire so I think

it was a big influence on some of those things

but all around a big influence on me and my youth

and kind of fueled a lot of my early toy collecting

and stuff like that I had Spider -Man play sets

and action figures and you know all kinds of

stuff and to this day I still kind of collect

Spider -Man stuff so really had a big influence

on me. Yeah I too loved that cartoon growing

up like that cartoon and X -Men like yourself

had a huge influence on my on my childhood and

adulthood and there were so many characters that

either showed up in that show some way I think

that's the first time I saw anything about Daredevil

was in that cartoon I never heard of that character

before then so It did introduce me to, like,

a broader scope of the Marvel world that, like,

the X -Men wasn't at the time, so... Yeah, they

even... They did a... I think it was a two -part

crossover that they did with the X -Men, and

they had the same voice actors from the X -Men

come in and do the X -Men characters on the Spider

-Man show, so that was pretty interesting. Yeah,

I do remember that. That was pretty... pretty

great. I remember the Secret Wars episode where

they had Captain America. They even had... the

Iron Man show up in War Machine and they had

the same voice actors too that were in the Iron

Man cartoon from then as well. Yeah, so they

were doing, you know, crossover stuff way before

Marvel Studios, you know, they had this stuff

going on. Way before us too. Yeah. Any honorable

mentions that you, you know, almost included

but did not quite make the list? Jeff, do you

want to go first? Oh yeah, sure. I just wanted

to mention, like, some of the... some of the

old school classics that I really love. I really

enjoy watching Tom and Jerry. I see those from

time to time on TV. I know there's kind of a

newer version of it too, but even like the older

ones which were like totally silent and there's

like no voices, there's no speaking whatsoever,

for some reason I just always love watching those.

Also the like Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies,

those are just some classics that I enjoyed watching.

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and Porky Pig and all

those. And of course, Animaniacs, which Dan mentioned

on his list, and the Good Feathers. I loved watching

those guys. One of the other superhero ones that

I really enjoyed was Fantastic Four, and that

was from the Marvel Action Hour. That one, I

considered that for my list, but it didn't quite

make the cut. But then the last one probably

was, I think Dan liked this one too, but Tailspin.

I still love that show. Oh, got ya. But yeah,

I'm mixing up my cartoons. It's not hard to do.

There's a lot of them. Greg, how about yourself?

Anything that just barely missed your list? We've

got the Duck Ones of DuckTales and Darkwing Duck,

and of course, Tailspin, like Chuck mentioned.

We've also got Doug, Rugrats, Batman Beyond,

Justice League, and the Muppet Babies. Oh, that

was great. Yeah, much the Muppet Babies had some

great cultural reference references to so much

so that like they can't release On DVD because

of all the different clips that use from like

Star Wars seriously. Yeah, is that the reason?

That's a big reason why for licensing issues

and stuff like that. So Bastards, yeah Some of

that didn't like you mentioned Batman Beyond

Justice League very much closer making it also

Samurai Jack. Oh, it's a good one. They have

that on Netflix people I love that show. Animation

-wise. Phil Lamar also loves the voice of that.

Great voice. Like you said, Doug. Tiny Toons.

The Simpsons. I know it's not been great in recent

years, but when it was on, it was on. It was

amazing. Some other cartoons. Also this show

called Fillmore. Probably another show many people...

Watch it was up to on one Saturday morning for

Disney for ABC at the time and It was basically

taking NYPD blue and doing a parody of it instead

of policemen the people were hall monitors and

they did a Episode where they did a parody of

the silence of the lambs it seriously like that

cartoon was so It amazed me at the time. It's

such a great cartoon it It was, I think, unfortunately,

if it was on a better network, it probably would

have gotten more praise. Also loved Garfield

and his friends from the 90s. That cartoon was

pretty fantastic. And the real Ghostbusters,

we mentioned a few episodes ago. There's probably

a lot I'm forgetting. A lot of great animated

shows. Yeah, I was going to throw in Justice

League on mine, too. I forgot that one. Yeah,

that's pretty fair. I've been re -watching the

Unlimited episodes here and there and that show

was pretty awesome and we talked about Superman

a lot and that may be the best version of Superman

and also Superman the animated TV series was

pretty good too. Yeah, alright, anything else

before we finish this episode with our infamous

letter? Alright. We like to finish each episode

with a letter. to something, someone, or whatever

is on our mind. This week, actually, it's more

of a melancholy letter. It's positive, of course,

but it's inspired for a pretty sad reason. Legendary

comedian Harold Ramis has passed away, and it

kind of inspired me to write this letter for

Harold Ramis. For those who don't know, I'll

get into the letter, but he's had a huge influence.

We talked about the real Ghostbusters, and he's

had such a huge impact on comedy for the 80s

and 90s. even 2000s, that I thought it was only

fitting that we mentioned it because his work

has probably greatly influenced us throughout

time. So here it goes. The world has gotten a

little less funny. Legendary comedian Harold

Ramis has passed away and entered the great proton

pack in the sky. Ramus is responsible for helping

craft some of the greatest comedies of the 80s

and 90s. His credits include Animal House, Caddyshack,

Stripes, Ghostbusters, Back to School, Analyze

This, and what I deem as a cinematic comedic

masterpiece, Groundhog Day. He had the rare ability

to make smart and dumb comedies that approached

humor in a broad sense, but would also give you

something extra. A sharp line placed just at

the right moment to cut you so deep and quick

you didn't even notice its brilliance until two

moments later. He wasn't afraid to approach high

concepts of the utter ridiculous. I mean, he

made Stay Puft Marshmallow into a thing. I couldn't

imagine anyone approaching something that hilariously

ridiculous in today's movie environment. If I

were to pick one specific piece of Ramis' filmography,

it would actually not be Ghostbusters, but Groundhog

Day. For me, comedy is at its best when it approaches

the taboo or is used to break down deeply evolved

themes that are far too foreboding to face straight

on. Groundhog Day does both. Deep, dark, and

intellectually thoughtful, unlike anything I've

seen since. Very few films have the ability to

make you laugh and question your own psychology

and your take on life. Groundhog Day just did

that. So Mr. Rameless, I simply would like to

thank you for being a large part of my cinematic

life. Your genius will clearly never be forgotten,

as generations will share your work for years

to come. One last piece of advice, if you're

up there and someone asks you if you're a god,

say yes. Sincerely, Dan. Nice. Very nice. He

had a lot of great movies. I loved Stripes in

particular. Yeah. I loved both Stripes and Groundhog

Bay and Ghostbusters. I think people obviously

know him as an actor, but I saw someone on Facebook

ask like why do people care that much about Harold

Ramis? He just was in that one movie, but he

did a lot of work behind the camera and he he

wrote so much. He directed a lot of great things,

so he was quite the legend. He really shaped

comedy for the 80s and 90s. He was a big part

of it. At least Dan Ackroyd will stop bugging

him about doing Ghostbusters 3 now, so he's got

that. I heard that's still going to happen, though.

It may, it may. But what was interesting, though,

is I didn't realize there was actually kind of

a, not feud, but the relationship between Remus

and Murray, Bill Murray, kind of was on the outs

after Groundhog Day. I guess they had some disagreements

and stuff like that and they hadn't talked to

each other in quite a long time. So that makes

me sad because I can only imagine what else they

could have crafted if they got got back together.

You know, if they didn't have that falling out,

I think we could have had some more great comedies.

But got to appreciate what we do have because

there's a lot there. So anything else before

we bring this episode to a close? I'm going to

take that as a no. That's a no. Alright, well

negatory if you wouldn't like to get in contact

with us you respond to our list Possibly, if

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topic or idea, there's different ways to get

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contact with us also if you go to geekcashradio

.com You can comment on the episode post and

let let us know What your favorite cartoons are

what you thought of our churches? What did we

leave off? What should be on there? All that

great stuff so anyways like to thank you all

for listening to us for this week And we'll be

back next week with more podcast goodness, but

for now This has been Chuck. This has been Greg

or Brock Sampson, and this has been Dan and we've

been Talking in circles, we'll see you next week.